Rampant power outages are hitting Africa’s telecom sector hard, and are likely to cause aftershocks in related industries.Southern African Development Community (SADC) and West African countries including Zambia, Nigeria, South Africa, and Malawi face an increasing number of power shortages, affecting the ability of businesses to run base stations, data centers, computers and other IT equipment.Fuel shortages in Nigeria Monday, for example, curtailed MTN and Etisalat services. The shortages also disrupted services in the banking and travel industries.Persistent power shortages have added to the high cost of doing business in Africa, as most mobile phone service providers and business process outsourcing facilities are forced to use generators to power installations. This has led operators including MTN to increase investments in renewable energy technologies in order to avoid reliance on the national grid.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple's App Store was launched on July 10, 2008 with 552 apps. The first weekend saw 10 million downloads."Stunning," was Apple CEO Steve Jobs comment at the time, according to Macworld.Well, as we know, apps have since taken off and app stores have spread to different devices. The latest of which is the connected car's first app gallery, just announced.Dongle
It comes from Automatic, a company that makes a proprietary dongle for the car that grabs data from the vehicle's On-board Diagnostics II System (OBD-II). Automatic merges that data with other sensors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Charter Communications' planned acquisition of Time Warner Cable faces a regulatory review by the same federal officials who were widely blamed for nixing the recent proposed merger of Time Warner with Comcast.The $55 billion deal (plus $23 billion in debt) between TWC and Charter, announced Tuesday, led immediately to an unusual three-sentence challenge by Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler that succinctly stated: "The Commission will look to see how American consumers will benefit if the deal were to be approved."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The number of people using the Internet is growing at a steady rate, but 4.2 billion out of 7.4 billion will still be offline by the end of the year.Overall, 35.3 percent of people in developing countries will use the Internet, compared to 82.2 percent in developed countries, according to data from the ITU (International Telecommunication Union). People who live in the so-called least developed countries will the worst off by far: In those nations only 9.5 percent will be connected by the end of December.This digital divide has resulted in projects such as the Facebook-led Internet.org. Earlier this month, Facebook sought to address some of the criticism directed at the project, including charges that it is a so-called walled garden, putting a limit on the types of services that are available.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Charter Communications has confirmed it plans to acquire of Time Warner Cable, a deal that if approved would create the second-biggest cable operator in the U.S.Cable operators are under pressure from a new generation of companies such as Netflix that offer competing video services, and Charter is hoping scale will help it compete more effectively. It values the deal at $78.7 billion including assumed debt.MORE M&A: 2015 Enterprise networking & IT M&A trackerCharter also plans to acquire Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company. If successful, the deals would make Charter, currently the fourth-biggest cable company in the U.S., second only to Comcast. The combined entity would serve 23.9 million customers in 41 states.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Charter strikes $55 billion deal for Time Warner CableCharter Communications will spend US$55 billion to buy Time Warner Cable in a deal that would create a broadband powerhouse in the U.S., the Wall Street Journal reports. Comcast’s bid to buy Time Warner fell apart last month when it became clear that key regulators in the U.S. were opposed. Expect Charter’s plans to be closely scrutinized for their impact on competition, as well.Legendary Apple designer Jony Ive moves up into less hands-on roleThe British design genius who partnered with the late Steve Jobs to create some of the most iconic products in tech is moving up into a newly created executive role at Apple—and one that will likely have him in a less hands-on role, re/code reports. Jony Ive was named chief design officer, a role where he’ll focus on new ideas and future initiatives, while day-to-day oversight will fall to Richard Howarth on industrial design and Alan Dye on user interfaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Charter Communications is said to be near a US$55 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable, a deal that would create a broadband powerhouse in the U.S.The deal could be announced as early as Tuesday, according to articles in the Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, the first to report the story.Charter also plans to acquire Bright House Networks, a smaller cable company. If successful, the deals would make Charter, currently the fourth biggest cable company in the U.S., second to only Comcast.This is Charter’s second attempt to buy Time Warner Cable. After its first offer was rejected, Comcast in 2014 made its own bid. That deal, however, fell apart in April after the Federal Communications Commission referred the proposed acquisition to a hearing in front of a judge. The move effectively killed that plan because of the time and effort it would have taken.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon.com may be planning to set up a marketplace for craftsmen, a questionnaire posted on the company’s website suggests.A marketplace focused on artisan products, which seems likely to be called Handmade, would put the online retailer directly in competition with the Etsy forum, where 1.4 million active sellers push 32 million handmade items, vintage goods and craft supplies.Etsy sellers have received invites to sign up for the new section of the Amazon site, The Wall Street Journal reported.On Etsy forums, some users said they had received emails from Amazon that discussed the new marketplace for handcrafted products. Some Etsy sellers are already selling through the online retailer. Others appeared interested in the new marketplace proposed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Senate was deadlocked on Friday over whether to extend authorization for the National Security Agency’s massive collection of domestic telephone records, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell insisting the surveillance program should continue with no new limits.With a weekend deadline looming, McConnell advocated for extending the section of the Patriot Act that the NSA has used to justify its collection of millions of U.S. phone records over the last nine years. Section 215 of the Act, which allows the agency to collect any telephone and business records relevant to a counterterrorism investigation, expires June 1, and Congress is scheduled to take a week-long recess starting this weekend.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Internet of Things/Everything can serve as a potentially lifesaving tool. Sensor-based wearable technology can monitor bodily vitals to determine if any health risks are imminent.Cisco and customer Cyrcadia Health are involved in the development of what it calls an iTBra to monitor a woman’s body temperature to determine if she is at risk for breast cancer. The iTBra is a personal screening tool intended as an intelligent monthly breast health monitor.The iTBra is made up of patches placed under a normal bra that collect up to 12 hours of normal and abnormal cellular activity associated with breast cancer. The iTBra bra is designed to take tissue density, a gating factor in the accuracy of mammography screening, out of the detection equation.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you think stop-and-go city traffic can be bad around rush hour, just wait until connected cars get in on the act and start bringing mobile networks to a standstill too. There isn't enough capacity, a new report says.Market intelligence strategist Machina Research paints a gloomy connectivity picture of excessive growth from M2M, which includes connected cars.Growth in that area threatens to disrupt all mobile data traffic.Parking lot
UK-based Machina Research analyzes Internet of Things (IoT), M2M and Big Data. Its report says that mobile data will double in certain cells at rush hour. The report predicts a 97% increase over 10 years. The big driver will be cars.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Connected cars will add to mobile traffic jamsExpect mobile networks to struggle as they are called on to handle a rapidly increasing number of connected cars. Traffic growth from M2M (machine to machine) connections, particularly from cars, will cause headaches for mobile operators, says Machina Research. Car connections are expected to surpass 500 million in 2019 and then 1 billion in 2023, when they will account for more than half of all M2M connections over cellular networks. And they’ll use lots of data, thanks to connected entertainment and navigation systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The ICANN leader who kicked off the Internet organization’s move away from U.S. government control will leave his post early, possibly before the transition is finished.Fadi Chehadé, who became president and CEO of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers in September 2012, will step down in March 2016, ICANN announced on Thursday. He is leaving for a new career in the private sector, outside of the domain name industry, the group said. Chehadé’s term was to have lasted until June 2017.Chehadé’s biggest job at the helm of ICANN, which coordinates the Internet’s DNS (Domain Name System) and Internet Protocol addresses, has been to shepherd its transition away from U.S. control. ICANN operates under a contract from the U.S. National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which is scheduled to expire in September.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Senate on Thursday failed to move forward on efforts to extend the section of the Patriot Act that the National Security Agency has used to collect millions of domestic telephone records.Congress is facing an effective deadline of this weekend to extend the phone records collection section of the antiterrorism law, with Section 215 of the Patriot Act expiring June 1 and lawmakers scheduled to take a weeklong break after finishing business this week.On Thursday, Senators were wrestling with three alternatives: allow the Patriot Act’s records collection program to expire, extend the program with no new limits, or pass a House of Representatives bill that aims to end bulk records collection but allows the NSA to search phone and business records in a more targeted manner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A branch in the US Department of Energy want to take software-defined network technology and combine it with a high-speed underlying optical system that will be capable of supporting large scientific applications.+More on Network World: What network technology is going to shake up your WAN?+Specifically the Office of Advanced Scientific Computing Research in the Office of Science at the U.S. DOE said that networks are becoming too complicated to manage and control, especially as they provide critical support for sophisticated distributed extreme-scale science activities and Big Data-intensive scientific collaborations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After launching its Community Cloud last August for companies trying to engage their customers online, Salesforce has now given the platform a major update.Community Cloud, designed to let companies create their own “LinkedIn-style” communities for customers, partners and employees, has a new Targeted Recommendations feature aimed at promoting user engagement in these sites.Powered by algorithms that analyze both structured and unstructured data, the new feature is designed to bring community members the most relevant content, including posts, resources, files and groups. Community managers can suggest content with specific information or post an announcement into the feed and direct it at a specific group, member type or individual. Within a fitness-related community, for example, one could offer a coupon for running shoes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As PayPal prepares for its upcoming IPO as an independent eBay spinoff, it wants to make at least one thing clear: It’s got mobile covered.Over the past couple years, the payments company has re-engineered its back-end technology to become a strongerplatform for merchants, letting them incorporate a wider range of features into their payments services and improve the checkout process for customers. Many of the changes have been aimed squarely at improving the payment process on mobile devices.Roughly one-third of transactions processed by PayPal now come from mobile devices, PayPal President and incoming CEO Dan Schulman said Thursday during an event in San Francisco. In 2010, mobile was responsible for only about 1 percent of the company’s transactions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco reportedly skirted sanctions in order to sell networking equipment to Russia’s military.In an investigative piece published this week, Buzzfeed alleges Cisco knowingly sold gear through straw companies fronting for Russian government and military institutions in violation of American sanctions. Cisco denies any wrongdoing and any knowledge of the scheme, allegedly perpetrated by its Russian operations, according to Buzzfeed.Cisco says some of the bogus customer names were errors, Buzzfeed reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Russian Internet company Yandex has released a beta version of its new browser that the company says is more privacy-friendly than an earlier build.Unlike an alpha version released last year, the Yandex.Browser beta doesn’t send usage statistics to the company by default. However, other information will still be shared, so it remains to be seen whether the privacy safeguards will be compelling enough to attract a substantial number of users, as the company hopes.Yandex, which runs Russia’s most popular search engine, decided to make this beta version more privacy friendly than the alpha in response to feedback from users in Germany, Canada and the U.S.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple says it has resolved a widespread iCloud issue that caused service disruptions for 40 percent of its users—that comes out to at least 128 million people, based on a company customer count.Several services, including iCloud Mail, had been running slower for some people, Apple said in an early status report. Apple later updated iCloud’s status page to reflect that all services were working normally. The service issue lasted for around seven hours, starting at approximately 2:15 a.m. ET and ending around 9:30 a.m. ET, according to the service’s status page.Apple didn’t provide details on what caused the disruption or how many people were affected. However, the company said in a 2013 earnings report that 320 million people use iCloud, which lets them back up and sync information stored on Apple devices via the company’s cloud.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here